Method and system of verifying and authenticating personal history

ABSTRACT

A method and system of verifying and authenticating personal history data of a subject comprising requesting the personal history data of the subject from a data base provider, searching the data base for the personal history data of the subject, transmitting the requested personal history data to the requester, reviewing the personal history data by the subject and verifying the accuracy of the personal history data by the subject and authenticating the verified personal history data by the subject.

CROSS-REFERENCE

This is a utility application of provisional application Ser. No.60/593769, filed Feb. 11, 2005.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

A method of verifying and authenticating personal history data orinformation from at least one data base.

2. Description of the Prior Art

There are numerous data bases available to acquire and verify personalinformation for numerous reasons such as individuals seeking orcontinuing employment, financial transactions such as loans and otherselection or qualifying processes.

Unfortunately, information obtained from various data bases is oftenincomplete or inaccurate. This can result in wrongfully denying anapplicant or individual an opportunity he or she might otherwise beeligible for. If an individual were permitted to review the informationprior to a decision being made based upon the erroneous information, thedeficiency could generally be rectified. Moreover, when the informationis derogatory, individuals may not be afforded the opportunity toexplain or mitigate the negative information.

Thus, there is a need for a method or system that provides a means foran individual to review, verify, authenticate and explain data orinformation obtained on his or her personal history that may impact onthe decision making process.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and system of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of a subject obtained from a database provider requested by a third party.

The subject invention provides a mode to authenticate and verifyapplicant or consumer information such as criminal records or creditrecords using a self-reporting questionnaire based system that allows asubject to verify his or her personal information through a series ofbiographical based questions.

The system may use remote computers operatively coupled or linked to atleast one data base provider by corresponding data communication linkscapable of transferring data and information therebetween.

The method and system for verifying and authenticating personal historydata of a subject obtained from a data base provider requested by athird party comprises authorizing the third party to conduct a personalhistory data base search of the subject from the data base provider,requesting the personal history data of the subject from the data baseprovider, searching the data base of the data base provider for thepersonal history data of the subject, transmitting the personal historydata of the subject to the requesting third party, providing the subjectwith the received personal history data for examination andverification, verifying and authenticating the personal history data bythe subject and reviewing the authenticated personal history data by thethird party.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction,combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will beexemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope ofthe invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a fuller understanding of the nature and object of the invention,reference should be had to the following detailed description taken inconnection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic of the system of the present invention in anetwork environment.

FIG. 2 depicts a computer used to implement the method and system of thepresent invention in a network environment.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the method and system of the presentinvention.

FIG. 4 depicts a personal history report to be verified andauthenticated using the method and system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 depicts the self-reporting questionnaire for use with the methodand system of the present invention.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and system of verifying andauthenticating personal history data or information of an individual orsubject obtained from a data base provider requested by a third party.

The system provides a mode to authenticate and verify applicant orconsumer information such as criminal convictions and credit records.The invention is a self-reporting questionnaire based system thatpermits a subject to verify his or her personal information through aseries of biographical based questions. By self-reporting andauthenticating adverse or derogatory data disclosed during a backgroundinvestigation search of various databases available by government andCredit Reporting Agencies (CRA), a consumer, credit provider, employeror prospective employer can save valuable time and costs associated withsending employees, contractors, or Credit Reporting Agencies to thecourts or other repositories to verify the record. The authenticatedrecords and rehabilitative efforts undertaken by the consumer, jobcandidate or employee are stored in a database to assist employers orother decision makers in hiring or retention decisions and creditproviders in business decisions based on the verified and authenticatedinformation. Moreover, the system allows consumers, applicants oremployees to provide detailed reasons why they should be granted credit,hired or their employment continued despite adverse or derogatoryinformation. The business process creates a cost effective and efficientmethod that saves time, expenses, misidentification of erroneousinformation that are not the individual's record due to similarities innames or other personal identifying information.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention can be implementedthrough the use of the Internet to request and transfer data andinformation. As shown in FIG. 1, the system comprises third partycomputers 10 located at corresponding sites 12 operatively coupled orlinked to at least one data base provider 14 by corresponding datacommunication links 16 capable of transferring data and informationtherebetween.

As depicted in FIG. 2, each third party computer 10 may comprise aprocessor unit or device 18 operatively coupled to a keyboard or inputdevice 20, a printer or output device 22, a memory or data base 24 and amonitor or screen 26. As previously described, the third party computers10 are operatively coupled to at least one data base provider 14 throughthe data communication links 16. The data communication links 16 maycomprise any suitable state of the art transmitting/receiving system ormeans.

As discussed more fully hereinafter, the method and system of thepresent invention for verifying and authenticating personal history dataof a subject obtained from a data base provider requested by a thirdparty comprises subscribing to the data base provider by the thirdparty, assigning the third party a discrete subscriber identificationpass-word by the data base provider, authorizing the third party toconduct a personal history data base search of the subject, requestingthe personal history data of the subject from the data base provider,searching the data base of the data base provider for personal historydata of the subject, transmitting the personal history data of thesubject to the requesting third party, providing the subject with thereceived personal history data for examination and verification,verifying and authenticating the personal history data and reviewing theauthenticated personal history data by the third party.

The method of the present invention is best understood with reference toFIG. 3. Specifically, the method and system of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of a subject obtained from a database provider by an inquiry by a third party comprises the steps ofsubscribing to the data base provider by the third party, assigning thethird party a discrete subscriber identification pass-word by the database provider, authorizing the third party to conduct a personal historydata base search of the subject, requesting the subject's personalhistory data from the data base provider using the discrete subscriberidentification pass-word, searching the data base of the data baseprovider for the personal history data of the subject, transmitting thepersonal history data of the subject from the data base provider to therequesting third party, providing the subject with the personal historydata received from the data base provider for examination andverification, verifying the accuracy of the personal history datathrough examination thereof by the subject, authenticating the verifiedpersonal history data by the subject by completing a plurality ofpersonal history inquiries, answering a plurality of elective responsesby the subject to Yes or No questions, providing narrative responses bythe subject to a plurality of inquiries, reviewing the verified andauthenticated personal history data by the third party and entering theverified and authenticated personal history data in a data base of thethird party, transmitting the verified and authenticated personalhistory data to the data base provider and entering the verified andauthenticated personal history data in the data base of the data baseprovider.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the subscribing, assigning, requesting andtransmitting functions or steps and other communications between thedata base provider and the third parties may be accomplished with stateof the art technology schematically depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 shows an outlined example of a personal history report obtainedfrom the data base provider for review, verification and authenticationby the subject at the behest of the third party.

The authentication process is accomplished by completing the pluralityof personal history inquiries by the subject, answering a plurality ofquestions by the subject, providing narrative responses to a pluralityof inquiries by the subject shown in FIG. 5.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those madeapparent from the preceding description are efficiently attained andsince certain changes may be made in the above construction withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended tocover all of the generic and specific features of the invention hereindescribed, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as amatter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Now that the invention has been described,

1. A method of verifying and authenticating personal history data of asubject comprising requesting the personal history data of the subjectfrom a data base provider, searching the data base for the personalhistory data of the subject, reviewing the personal history data by thesubject and verifying the accuracy of the personal history data by thesubject and authenticating the verified personal history data by thesubject.
 2. The method of verifying and authenticating personal historydata of claim 1 includes subscribing to the data base provider by thethird party.
 3. The method of verifying and authenticating personalhistory data of claim 2 including assigning the third party a discretesubscriber identification pass-word by the data base provider.
 4. Themethod of verifying and authenticating personal history data of claim 3also includes authorizing the third party to conduct a personal historydata base search of the subject.
 5. The method of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of claim 4 also includes requestingthe subject's personal history data from the data base provider usingthe discrete subscriber identification pass-word.
 6. The method ofverifying and authenticating personal history data of claim 5 alsoincludes searching the data base of the data base provider for thepersonal history data of the subject.
 7. The method of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of claim 6 also includestransmitting the personal history data of the subject from the data baseprovider to the requesting third party.
 8. The method of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of claim 7 also includes providingthe subject with the personal history data received from the data baseprovider for examination and verification.
 9. The method of verifyingand authenticating personal history data of claim 8 also includesverifying the accuracy of the personal history data through examinationthereof by the subject.
 10. The method of verifying and authenticatingpersonal history data of claim 9 also includes authenticating theverified personal history data by the subject by completing a pluralityof personal history inquiries by the subject and answering a pluralityof elective responses to questions by the subject.
 11. The method ofverifying and authenticating personal history data of claim 10 alsoincludes providing narrative responses by the subject to a plurality ofinquiries.
 12. The method of verifying and authenticating personalhistory data of claim 11 also includes reviewing the verified andauthenticated personal history data by the third party.
 13. The methodof verifying and authenticating personal history data of claim 12 alsoincludes entering the verified and authenticated personal history datain a data base of the third party.
 14. The method of verifying andauthenticating personal history data of claim 13 also includestransmitting the verified and authenticated personal history data to thedata base provider and entering the verified and authenticated personalhistory data in the data base of the data base provider.
 15. A method ofverifying and authenticating personal history data of a subject obtainedfrom a data base provider by an inquiry by a third party comprises thesteps of subscribing to the data base provider by the third party,assigning the third party a discrete subscriber identification pass-wordby the data base provider, authorizing the third party to conduct apersonal history data base search of the subject, requesting thesubject's personal history data from the data base provider using thediscrete subscriber identification pass-word, searching the data base ofthe data base provider for the personal history data of the subject,transmitting the personal history data of the subject from the data baseprovider to the requesting third party, providing the subject with thepersonal history data received from the data base provider forexamination and verification, verifying the accuracy of the personalhistory data through examination thereof by the subject, authenticatingthe verified personal history data by the subject by completing aplurality of personal history inquiries by the subject, answering aplurality of elective responses to questions by the subject such as Yesor No, providing narrative responses by the subject to a plurality ofinquiries, reviewing the verified and authenticated personal historydata by the third party and entering the verified and authenticatedpersonal history data in a data base of the third party, transmittingthe verified and authenticated personal history data to the data baseprovider and entering the verified and authenticated personal historydata in the data base of the data base provider.